I was trying to remember where I read or heard this, then I realized it was a story my mother told me. Ha!

She says that a friend who worked in the ER told her that when men die, they may say just about anything. When women die, they call for their mothers.

My mother is my best friend - I wouldn't ask her about sex, but I do call her when I read something interesting and want someone to talk to about it. She's one of the few working writers I know locally. Am I dependent on her? Not financially. Am I more dependent on her than she was on her mother? Hmm. She and her mother had a troubled relationship, based mostly on the fact that my grandmother was a glamorous actress and my mother was never glamorous. They did call each other every day until the day of my grandmother's death, however.

Someone else mentioned this, but I thought it was worthy of its own post:

Are fat fathers allowed to adopt children, or is this guideline women-only? Anyone know?

Supposedly college education is the most reliable way to lower someone's score on the RWA index.

Which is why these folks are so anti-college and so pro-homeschooling. It's essential that they keep each other from being exposed to the outside world.

I notice that Tucker and Jonah like Cheney for the exact same reasons I hate him. These guys LIKE contempt? They like it when someone regards them with contempt? Doesn't seem healthy. Contempt is not the reaction I hope for from other people.

Oh, I see you've met Eric!

(Not his name.)

I "cut" him when he tried to high-five me, very publicly, and he hasn't acted the fool with me since. Just turn your back to him and let him slap air all alone.

Eric is actually sort of lonely and desperate, so I try to give him a kind word once in a while.

Thanks for the link to Orcinus - maybe I'll find something there which will enable my husband to rescue his mother. She wasn't born an authoritarian, and it's making him crazy that she seems to have abandoned any individual thoughts she ever had.

I'm presently reading Arendt's "Origins of Totalitarianism" in an attempt to get some perspective on what's happening to America. Arendt makes a point which I haven't seen made here, at least not explicitly: the majority of people in all countries most of the time are simply not that smart and not that interested in politics. If a ruthless leader can find a way to energize these people, they can easily take over a democracy, and because they are inexperienced and unsophisticated when it comes to the political process, they are extremely gullible.

When did 51% of Americans become dumbasses who would vote Bush a second term? Arendt's answer, basically, is that it's not an increase in the number of dumbasses, simply an increase in the number of dumbasses who go to the polls. How can red-staters claim to "love America" while supporting someone who thinks the Constitution is "a stupid piece of paper"? Well... these are the people who slept through civics class. They don't know that the Declaration of Independence is not the founding document of the United States. They don't care about the Bill of Rights. If they ever heard the words "checks and balances" they thought someone was talking about banking.

The newest, most dangerous generation of these Authoritarians were homeschooled and didn't even have to sleep through civics class; they were never taught to value the rights and freedoms and the rule of law that the rest of us - the ones who paid attention in high school - take for granted as the things that define America.

Authoritarians really are dumber than other people. They may not test lower on IQ tests, but they fail to react when confronted with logical inconsistencies. They demonstrate a lack of ability to act in their own interests. They aren't going to get smarter. And the problem with winning them from their Neo-Con masters is that nice people balk at the idea of manipulating other people with lies and propaganda.

The suggestions I'm seeing here for reaching these folks have a common fault: authoritarians only respect approved authorities. In this case, y'all, that means fundie church leaders. That's where these people are getting their information. Not from the news, not from news shows. From the pulpit. I'm tempted to join a mega-church. We have a doozie where I live, which just put up a 72-foot imitation statue of Liberty holding a cross instead of a torch and weeping, with a base proclaiming the message "America return to God." It's tempting to wonder if it would be possible to infiltrate the enemy. But it seems unlikely that I'd be able to pull it off.

Unfortunately my in-laws are hard core. I just spent a weekend with them, and it breaks my heart. (Step)father-in-law is the classic "I was an alcoholic before I found Jesus," and it's almost impossible to argue with him, because it's literally true that the fundamentalist church saved his life.

My thought for the statue was to spray-paint a rainbow on it, but alas, it's well-guarded.

(In case you thought I was kidding)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/04/us/05liberty.1901.jpg